Comprehensive bioinformation analysis of homeodomain-leucine zipper gene family and expression pattern of HD-Zip I under abiotic stress in Salix suchowensis.

BACKGROUND: Homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) transcription factors are plant-specific and play important roles in plant defense against environmental stresses. Identification and functional studies have been carried out in model plants such as rice, Arabidopsis thaliana, and poplar, but comprehensive analysis on the HD-Zip family of Salix suchowensis have not been reported. RESULTS: A total of 55 HD-Zip genes were identified in the willow genome, unevenly distributed on 18 chromosomes except for chromosome 19. And segmental duplication events containing SsHD-Zip were detected on all chromosomes except chromosomes 13 and 19. The SsHD-Zip were classified into 4 subfamilies subfamilies (I-IV) according to the evolutionary analysis, and members of each subfamily shared similar domain structure and gene structure. The combination of GO annotation and promoter analysis showed that SsHD-Zip genes responded to multiple abiotic stresses. Furthermore, the results of qPCR analysis showed that the SsHD-Zip I gene exhibited different degrees of expression under salt stress, PEG treatment and heat treatment. Moreover, there was a synergistic effect between SsHD-Zip I genes under stress conditions based on coregulatory networks analysis. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, HD-Zip transcription factors were systematically identified and analyzed at the whole genome level. These results preliminarily clarified the structural characteristics and related functions of willow HD-Zip family members, and it was found that SsHox34, SsHox36 and SsHox51 genes were significantly involved in the response to various stresses. Together, these findings laid the foundation for further research on the resistance functions of willow HD-Zip genes.

Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of VQ gene family under abiotic stress in Coix lacryma-jobi L.

BACKGROUND: Valine-glutamine (VQ) proteins are non-specific plant proteins that have a highly conserved motif: FxxhVQxhTG. These proteins are involved in the development of various plant organs such as seeds, hypocotyls, flowers, leaves and also play a role in response to salt, drought and cold stresses. Despite their importance, there is limited information available on the evolutionary and structural characteristics of VQ family genes in Coix lacryma-jobi. RESULTS: In this study, a total of 31 VQ genes were identified from the coix genome and classified into seven subgroups (I-VII) based on phylogenetic analysis. These genes were found to be unevenly distributed on 10 chromosomes. Gene structure analysis revealed that these genes had a similar type of structure within each subfamily. Moreover, 27 of ClVQ genes were found to have no introns. Conserved domain and multiple sequence alignment analysis revealed the presence of a highly conserved sequences in the ClVQ protein. This research utilized quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and promoter analysis to investigate the expression of ClVQ genes under different stress conditions. Results showed that most ClVQ genes responded to polyethylene glycol, heat treatment, salt, abscisic acid and methyl jasmonate treatment with varying degrees of expression. Furthermore, some ClVQ genes exhibited significant correlation in expression changes under abiotic stress, indicating that these genes may act synergistically in response to adversarial stress. Additionally, yeast dihybrid verification revealed an interaction between ClVQ4, ClVQ12, and ClVQ26. CONCLUSIONS: This study conducted a genome-wide analysis of the VQ gene family in coix, including an examination of phylogenetic relationships, conserved domains, cis-elements and expression patterns. The goal of the study was to identify potential drought resistance candidate genes, providing a theoretical foundation for molecular resistance breeding.